It is what usually happens during coups, regardless of how the perpetrators might describe it.

You could say — and Egyptian authorities have — that these stations were inciting violence, and what Egypt needs now is stability and calm.

That may well be, but the new regime also insists it was not a coup, and they seem to be eliminating media that might claim otherwise, or be sympathetic to ousted president Mohammed Morsi.

Meanwhile, military organizations everywhere do not much like the free flow of information. They believe it is a hindrance, not a help, despite all indications to the contrary.

You could also say, as many do daily, that modern mainstream media agencies are not giving us a true picture of any event, let alone one as volatile as this. Still, more information is always better than less; it allows people to make up their own minds.

Regardless, the crackdown on media in Egypt does not bode well for the future of the country.

As the Muslim Brotherhood has said, the move to suppress information hearkens back to the troubled nation's "dark ages."

Human rights groups and the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, have criticized the crackdown. It is a "worrying series of moves that seemed designed to cut off coverage of pro-Morsi events."

The Associated Press Television News, which was ordered to deny Al-Jazeera channels access to their live services, protested: "Our long-standing position is that we cover the news for all of our clients. What is happening in Egypt is a fluid situation and we are working to satisfy the needs of all of them."

Never mind elections or the right to vote — a democracy is not a democracy without a free press.

Whatever criticisms you may (or may not) have of Israel, it is one of the few truly democratic countries in the Middle East with a free press that regularly criticizes its own government.

That, not surprisingly, may be why there is so much news available that is critical of Israel. And why there is not much information at all about places like Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where various abuses and human rights violations are far more common.

Egypt has struggled to become a democracy, but it's stepping away from it now.

There are some (the Chinese media, for example, which does not qualify as free) who say (not surprisingly) that Western-style democracy isn't the answer to Egypt's woes, and they may be correct.

And it is evident, no matter what your political stripe, that democracies often result in disastrous mistakes.

But surely more information means more education, and surely more education is better for the future of any nation.

Paul Berton is editor-in-chief of The Hamilton Spectator and thespec.com. You can reach him at 905-526-3482 or pberton@thespec.com .